Book Review - Stitch Workshop - Herringbone Stitch

Herringbone weave takes it's name from how the beads line up to look like a herringbone brick or textile pattern. It's a traditional stitch used in South Africa by Ndebele tribe beaders. It's a fluid and wonderful stitch that adapts itself well to using multiple bead sizes and types.

This volume in the Stitch Workshop Series focuses on herringbone stitch and how adaptable it is to different projects and different looks. Starting with an introduction to the stitch written by Diane Fitzgerald, then well illustrated instructions for the stitch techniques like the basic flat herringbone started traditionally and with a herringbone start, tubular herringbone, and twisted tubular herringbone. The introduction also includes other basic stitches that might used in some of the projects, and other tools and techniques that are used.

Then it gets into the projects, starting with a flat herringbone bracelet with a wonderful shape that frames 3 larger accent Czechoslovakian cathedral beads and displays them. Sue Sloan's Mata Hari Bracelet is a quick to stitch introduction to herringbone that would pair beautifully with business clothes or blue jeans.

Like the other Stitch Workshop books, the projects collected show a lot of the possibilities of the stitch using variations and techniques in wonderful ways by different artists. The text rich instructions are easy to follow one step at a time.

Nice bracelets, as a fan of bracelet patterns and bracelets, this is my favorite part of this book. Jill Wiseman's Pillars of Strength uses twisted bugle beads and takes inspiration from Ionic columns. Marcia Katz's Fiesta Bangle uses the basic stitch structure and hundreds of seed bead loops in charlottes worked over aquarium tubing for a very fun, tactile bracelet.

For necklace lovers, Jenny Van's Queen of the Sea is a wonderful, dressy necklace that combines tubular herringbone, a rivoli and pearls into sinuous curves and nice architectural detail that would be lovely for formal occasions. The shapes on Kim Spooner's Infinity Necklace make it very wearable for all but the most casual occasions. Carol Cypher's Hang In There bail for art beads is a clever use of seed beads to showcase a special lampwork or polymer clay bead.

Like the other books in this series, I recommend this to beginners and intermediate beaders looking to know more about the stitch and it's variations.

Published by Bead and Button Magazine.
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